DARDANELLE - Congressman Tim Griffin's "Jump-Starting Jobs Tour," a series of town hall-style meetings that the representative is hosting throughout the Second District, made its final scheduled stop Thursday at Dardanelle City Hall.

Griffin said he was pleased with the turnout at the meeting, which drew a crowd of about 20. Griffin has held similar events in Jacksonville, Hot Springs Village, Maumelle, Clinton, Morrilton, Perryville, Bryant, Searcy, Beebe and Fairfield Bay.

"I thought it went great," Griffin said. "We've had 13 or so formal town halls and if you count some of the other similar programs or similar events, then we've had more than that that weren't formally town halls. They've all been great. There's a been a ton of good discussion and people interested in what's going on. It was consistent with the rest of them."

Griffin said the town hall series was his response to a growing number of questions about the job market.

"I get a lot of questions like, 'What are you in the House or in Congress doing about the job situation?'" Griffin said. "What I wanted to do was lay out what we're doing in the House. Obviously, the Senate operates somewhat separately, but I want people to know what we're doing in the House and what the status of everything is and what those ideas are. So they can a) Know exactly what it is we're proposing to do and trying to do, and b) How things stand in the Senate and also so they can ask questions about it. Jobs is the No. 1 issue. There's a lot of different things that impact the job situation and I thought it was important to have that discussion."

On drawing new companies to our country and retaining those already located in the country, Griffin said the tax codes must be such as to draw the companies in.

"We have to create a country where companies want to come," Griffin said. "We don't want to create a country where they want to leave and go somewhere else. Someone asked me in a town hall meeting the other day, 'Why don't we just tell them to be here.' I said, 'Well, it's like dating. You can't make someone like you. You have to attract them.' It's that way with businesses - job creators. We can't say 'Bad company. Come back to our country. We're going to pass a law that says you must come back.' We can't do that. So how do we get those jobs back? We have to attract them."

Griffin said relaying his information on jobs is part of his duty despite Yell County's upcoming move from the 2nd District to the 4th.

"It's part of my district and I represent the people of Yell County until after the next election," he said. "It is my job to represent them and communicate with them and talk to them about things. That was never really a question about whether we were going to do that. It's what I have to do to represent the folks of Yell County. I'm happy to do it and I'm sure we'll be back in Yell County at some point."